mpcgamers blog

Khy is back with our latest Community Feature: a review of Skate 3, a new skating game recently published by EA!

I’m going to come straight out at you. This is NOT an unbiased review. I am a skater, and I enjoyed the first two skates, so yes, this is a biased review. To start it off I just wanna say this game gets +100000 review points for taking out your incredibly annoying camera man, Reda, and replacing him with Shingo, who’s actually one of your buddies from the first 2 games. I’m kidding, but it really is a good thing… Now lets start the review.

For this review I’m gonna break it up into 3 categories. Story, Location, Graphics/Sound.
Let’s start with Story.

To be honest, I wasn’t too interested with the storyline when I got this game. I really just wanted to skate around, haha. But unlike the first two games, I’ve found myself barely free-skating, and wrapped in the story. In the first 2 games, you made a name for yourself. Now, you’re famous, and you’re going to start your own skate company. With this comes sponsoring amateurs. These amateurs can be made, chosen out of preset skaters, or even friends that have Skate 3’s custom skaters. They become your teammates, and you can do contests, races, and other things normally done solo, as a team. For example, I signed up for a T-Mobile Grind contest. Instead of it being 4 solo people it was me and a teammate of my choice for team Octo (my brand name) against Team Baker (an actual skate company) and the two people on Team Baker were actual pros, actually sponsored by Baker in real life. I thought that was really cool. The mission of the game is to sell boards, one million to be exact. To sell boards you have to complete challenges like photos, contests, races, etc. The more boards you sell, the more teammates you can have. (up to 4 teammates eventually) I’ve found myself really wrapped up in selling boards. Another thing I’ve found cool is skating with your teammates. You can spawn your teammates nearby you and I’ve skated past dots on my mini-map that were my teammates. One time, all 3 of my teammates were in one mini-skate park together, and I joined them. I actually found myself skating around with them, and treating them like actually amateurs that I really sponsored, which was really cool. Your brand and teammates are actually really fun, and sometimes even save you in races or contests, score wise. Another cool part of the game is the new hall of meat. Most of them are you have to hit certain spots way down below you, usually starting from the top of a building. It’s really fun, and bones are highlighted in red showing which ones you broke on that particular bail. It’s really fun. Also, there was one where I had to (literally, this was the description) judo kick a citizen. Nonetheless, this was hilarious, as were all the hall of meat challenges.  The story line is very fun, and I like the idea , and they executed it very well.

I’m gonna come straight out with it. This town of Port Carverton is beautiful. It’s the ultimate skater’s paradise. I would live there, not just to skate, but to actually live. Every single area is a place to skate, and a very attractive place to skate. The city is broken up into 3 separate parts. Downtown consists of a much more polished area then the first two. It has more than just big buildings and plazas, but other things you would see in cities. University is a very cool area. Other than the college there’s hills, suburbs, and skate parks. Finally industrial is an awesome area, sort of like the factory area of town. There’s also some piers, and even a mini quarry. All three of these areas are awesome, and have so much to see. One thing I’ve found really cool, for some reason, is that unlike the first 2 games, skate 3 has actual stores. Skate 2 and 1 just consisted of unnamed buildings, while this one has actual stores with names, making it feel more like a city, which I really love.
You unlock skate parks also with your board sales; one indoor, one ramp park, one in downtown, like a plaza, and finally a mega park. To be honest, I wasn’t very interested in this before I got the game, as it seemed to tedious and I couldn’t see myself actually building any. I was wrong. Skate parks are incredibly fun to build, and skate in. You can have your teammates in them too, and it creates a fun hangout , and feel. Overall the city and what you can do with it makes an amazing experience.

IGN put out a review that I watched before I got this game. When they got to the graphics section, they said that the graphics aren’t much of a change from Skate 2. I still don’t understand where they got that from. The graphics received a huge upgrade, and the game looks totally different. The character models are less chunky, and every thing is very well polished. It’s also a lot lighter feel, and just overall the graphics are much better. One cool thing I noticed was after you fall a lot of do hall of meat, your clothes become really dirty. Then I looked closer, and I noticed that there was even blood on my arms… I even had a black eye a few times! It was really cool, and this was something I had hoped to be in the first two installments. The sound isn’t a big issue. While during contests, the announcers repeat a few things, it’s no biggie. The people’s words and things are also very cool and add to the city mood. Another BIG thing I like about the sound is the fact that my camera man does not make corny jokes. . Also, the music is extremely well done. All of the songs are enjoyable, and very fun to skate to. Overall the skate graphics and sound fit perfectly together.

I told you at the beginning of this review that this was a biased opinion. I’m basing off of what I expected in this game, and it gave me even more. The city is awesome, the game looks beautiful, and it’s just extremely fun.
I give this game:

10/10